The Rams list backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo as questionable for Sunday’s divisional round game against the Bears.
Garoppolo popped up on the injury report Thursday when he didn’t practice. He remained out of practice on Friday.
Nate Atkins of TheAthletic.com reports that Garoppolo’s back flared up earlier in the week.
Garoppolo has played 18 snaps in three games this season but has not thrown a pass.
Stetson Bennett will back up Matthew Stafford if Garoppolo can’t play.
Defensive end Desjuan Johnson (illness) is also questionable after being added to the report on Friday as a non-participant.
Offensive guard Kevin Dotson (ankle) will return after a full practice on Friday. He was injured in the loss to the Seahawks.
The Bears have handed in their final injury report for Sunday’s game against the Rams.
Wide receiver Rome Odunze is listed as questionable to play due to the foot issue that kept him out for the last month of the regular season. Odunze played last weekend and was up to full practice participation on Friday, which should bode well for his chance of playing this weekend.
Odunze’s fellow wideout DJ Moore was limited in practice with a knee injury on Wednesday and Thursday, but has no injury designation.
Linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin (back) joins Odunze in the questionable category while cornerback Nick McCloud (groin) has been ruled out.
The Rams will get guard Kevin Dotson back on Sunday.
Rams coach Sean McVay said today that Dotson will start against the Bears.
Dotson has missed the last three games after suffering an ankle injury in Week 16 against the Seahawks.
Dotson suffered the injury when teammate Coleman Shelton accidentally rolled into his leg, and then to add insult to injury, Seahawks linebacker Derick Hall stomped on Dotson’s leg while Dotson was on the ground. Hall was suspended for a game by the NFL for that.
Dotson had started all 15 games until that injury, and having him back in the lineup will be big for the Rams on Sunday.
The Rams are healthy heading to Chicago, although backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo will be listed as questionable with a back injury.
The Los Angeles Rams are favored by 3.5 points at Chicago in the divisional round of the playoffs. That’s extraordinarily rare.
Since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, there have been 224 divisional round games. Only twice has a road team been favored by more than the 3.5 points that the Rams are favored by.
The biggest road favorites in the divisional round were the 1979 Eagles, who were favored by 4.5 points at Tampa Bay. (The home Buccaneers pulled off the upset, 24-17). The second-biggest road favorites in the divisional round were the 1971 Baltimore Colts, who were favored by 4 points at Cleveland. (The Colts covered the spread, beating the Browns 20-3.)
And then there’s this year’s Rams, who are tied for the third-biggest spread for a road favorite with that 3.5-point line at Chicago on Sunday. A few other teams have been favored by exactly 3.5 points on the road in the divisional round, but only two have been favored by four or more.
Overall only 17 of 224 road teams have been favored in the divisional round. With the better teams getting home-field advantage, and often coming off a first-round playoff bye, a road favorite in the divisional round is a rarity in the NFL.
Bears coach Ben Johnson, who likes to fire up his team by talking about “noise” from their opponents, may use this information to give his players a “Nobody believes in us” speech, as his team is a rare home underdog.
The Rams and Bears will be playing in winter weather on Sunday night at Soldier Field in Chicago.
The current forecast for kickoff is a temperature of 19 degrees, wind gusts of 20 miles per hour and a 45 percent chance of snow.
Both teams’ coaches have said this week that they’re preparing for the winter weather.
Bears coach Ben Johnson says he likes the cold and that it could be a rude awakening for the opponents from Los Angeles, although Johnson acknowledged that Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford has plenty of experience in the cold.
“I do know this will be the coldest game that they’ve played this year,” Johnson said. “That’s something I recognized when we found out who the opponent was. But I think Matthew Stafford has played well in cold games in his past, I don’t know how much of an advantage that gives you over their passing game necessarily. There’s a lot of elements that go into a game like this.”
Rams coach Sean McVay noted that the Rams played in bad weather in two games last season, against the Eagles and Jets, and the weather didn’t hurt them.
“You know in the cold how the ball feels, but last year was a great example, we had two really cold games,” McVay said. “Matthew’s played in these conditions. So it doesn’t change. There’s a couple things you have to be mindful of, but you start talking about wind, rain, how that affects your footing, we always kind of adjust and adapt. They’ve got to be able to play in those elements — they have a little more experience, but we’re not going to allow that to be an excuse. I think you have to have a feel, but I think the way that our guys play, I think it suits us well in any sorts of conditions.”
